Pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A (
PAPP-A) and PAPP-A2, two homologous metzincin
metalloproteases, are both tightly linked to regulation within the
insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system because of their specific cleavage of
IGF binding proteins. Recent studies suggest that
PAPP-A may be involved in clinical conditions related to unwanted cellular growth, and the circulating levels of
PAPP-A is an established
biomarker in prenatal screening for
chromosomal abnormalities. Microarray data indicate that PAPP-A2 has potential as a
biomarker for
pre-eclampsia. However, well-characterized immunological methods of quantification are not available. We therefore developed
monoclonal antibodies against recombinant PAPP-A2. The
antibodies were
epitope mapped against recombinantly expressed chimeras between PAPP-A2 and
PAPP-A. Furthermore, circulating PAPP-A2 was immunoaffinity purified and characterized by sequence analysis and mass spectrometry. Unlike
PAPP-A, PAPP-A2 is a noncovalent dimer in which each subunit of 1558
amino acids originates from all of the 22 predicted coding exons. A previously hypothesized variant (
PAPP-E) does not exist, but low amounts of a C-terminally truncated PAPP-A2 variant was detected. A sensitive and robust ELISA for full-length PAPP-A2 was developed and used to establish normal ranges of PAPP-A2 through pregnancy. The functional sensitivity of this ELISA at 20% CV was 0.08 ng/ml, and the serum concentration of PAPP-A2 was found to increase during pregnancy in agreement with placental synthesis. The existence of this assay will enable an assessment of the
biomarker potential of PAPP-A2 in
pre-eclampsia as well as other clinical conditions.